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Indeed. Esp. Cyberiad and Robot's tales are full of wordplays, including the famous Elektrybałt's (Electro-poet's?) poem. Comparing the Polish (my native tongue
by jagrsw 7y ago
Indeed. Esp. Cyberiad and Robot's tales are full of wordplays, including the famous Elektrybałt's (Electro-poet's?) poem. Comparing the Polish (my native tongue) version end the English one (not a native speaker myself), I think that the Polish version is a bit better, using better-fitting rhymes and bigger amount of wordplay, but Michael Kandel (the translator) did an amazing job with the translation anyway:
--"Have it compose a poem — a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter S!!"
--“And why not throw in a full exposition of the general theory of nonlinear automata while you’re at it?” growled Trurl. “You can’t give it such idiotic — ”
But he didn’t finish. A melodious voice filled the hall with the following:
“Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.”*